P4L | Outer Banks | JJ Maybank

Argument

Cory's eyes widened. "Jay, you can't be here."

"I came to rescue you," JJ mumbled with a wide grin.

"No, Jay, I'm serious," Cory said, placing a hand on his chest and beginning to push him back. "Rafe is here, and my dad, and... god, you just cannot be here."

She pushed him back through the walkway, glancing to see if Rafe and Topper had spotted them. They looked to be too caught up in their own conversation to notice any odd Pogues hanging around.

"What?" JJ mumbled. "I'm saving you!"

The two stopped at the doorway, standing in front of it, hunched over in an attempt to make themselves smaller and less visible, though it didn't seem to work.

"JJ, you can't be here," Cory mumbled again nervously.

JJ placed his hands on her shoulders. "Cory, what's going on?"

"Look, Jay," Cory sighed. "It's my sister's engagement party. And she... she... she actually wants something to do with me for once." Cory felt tears pricking at her eyes.

But JJ's face contorted, a sudden hurt crossing it.

"You're here voluntarily?" he asked.

Cory sighed. "Well... yeah, I guess. I just... Jay, this is my one chance to win my family back."

"Cory, why would you want that?" JJ asked. "They have never been anything but assholes to you."

"That's the thing, Jay," Cory mumbled, a soft smile growing on her face. "They're not being assholes. They've been nice to me. It feels almost like... like I'm part of the family again."

JJ looked hurt by her confession.

"I thought you said we were your family," JJ said sadly.

"JJ, you are," Cory sighed, trying to wrack her brain for the right words.

"But you want to go back to them?" JJ scoffed. "I thought you hated them."

Cory sighed, feeling the breath leave her body in a puff. "JJ... I didn't hate them until they hated me." She knew it wasn't entirely true. She knew she hated her father above all else, because of what he had done to her mother. But JJ didn't know about that. No one else did. And while Cory didn't think she could ever forgive him for what he did, she figured she could deal with him just to have her sister back.

But then JJ's face contorted, slowly becoming less sad and more angry.

"Alright," he said, shrugging lightly. "I see how it is."
Cory's stomach dropped at his sudden turn to anger. Immediately the fear from being surrounded by so many aggressive and abusive men over the course of her life set in. she took a nervous step back.

"JJ, I didn't mean it like that," she mumbled. "JJ, I... I..." She wanted to say that she loved him. To spill out her emotions to him in that second, to convince him not to turn on her.

But then the eerie voice of her father came from down the hall.

"I knew it," the voice croaked.

Cory looked to her father with wide eyes. She watched as JJ turned to face him.

"How'd a pogue get into my house?" her father growled.

"Dad, he was just leaving," Cory rambled, just JJ held out a hand.

"No, I wasn't," JJ said, and she could immediately sense the difference in the air. "Not without her. I came to bring her back to her real home."

"Her real home?" her father asked, stepping closer.